All modern themes of poesy are spun so very fine,

    That now the most amusing muse,

     e gratia

    , such as mine,

    Is often forced to cut the thread that strings our recent rhymes,

    And try the stronger staple of the good old classic times.

    There lived and flourished long ago, in famous Athens town,

    One

     Dædalus

    , a carpenter of genius and renown;

    ('Twas he who with an

     auger

    taught mechanics how to

     bore

    ,—

    An art which the philosophers monopolized before.)

    His only son was

     Icarus

    , a most precocious lad,

    The pride of Mrs. Dædalus, the image of his dad;

 Prev. P 79/201 next